Thump... Thump... Thump...

One after another, human figures jumped down from the sky.

It's rather dark now. At this fogged up beach at night, Jeff and Lord Trample were the only light sources.

Lord Trample emitted a dim red light. Under his presence, the snow around him melted and boiled into white fumes.

Some distance away, Jeff was glowing with a golden light.

Yet, it simply wasn't bright enough here. Those guys only appeared as black silhouettes.

Jeff could only see glowing human figures with [Aura Vision].

There were 5 of them. Jeff could recognize two of the energy signatures. All of them were SS-ranks.

These guys quickly closed in on the minotaur.

The minotaur set his warhammer onto the ground. With his arms crossed, this monster looked like a final boss, awaiting its challengers.

'Looks like I've got teammates this time. A first. But this feeling ain't bad.' Jeff smiled.

Looking up, there's an airship full of people. Mostly S-ranks. Looks like those guys chose to stay behind.

Wise choice. This was a battle out of their calibers.

"Hey." It's a girl's voice. "I'm Oracle from East Berrystone."

"Telepathy from Picone. Tsup dudes." This was a young fella.

"Gardener from Thickford. Heeerre to help." This was a cheerful mid-aged fella?

Couldn't see. Couldn't tell for sure.

"Here." Atlas tossed an orb at Jeff. About the size of a fishbowl. Emitting a creamy-white glow.

Jeff caught that orb. Holding this orb in his hands, Jeff slightly closed his eyes in comfort. Originating from this orb, streams of warm and gentle energy flowed into his body.

The pain and soreness in his body quickly eased. The discomfort was now replaced with a fuzzy and tingly feeling.

On the outside, the digital-red patches on Jeff's body quickly shrunk.

This was one of the seven glow-tier items in the sanctuary's possession.

It only had one effect: health regeneration. This artifact could heal anyone from the brink-of-death to full health in 1000 seconds (16 Minutes 40 seconds). Basically recovers 0.1% of total health per second.

"Our S-ranks injected most of their mana into this. Use it thriftily." Atlas talked with in solemn tone.

"Thanks." Jeff nodded.

"Hey Jeff. Looks like you got beaten up too." It's Magni speaking. He was holding a glow-tier recurve bow in his hands now. "Is this, say, another ability of yours? Make you glow when you get injured?"

"Well... Yeah. Basically." Jeff nodded.

PAUSE: No. No it's not actually. But Magni didn't need to know that.

"You wanna retreat and regenerate for a moment?" Magni offered. "Or you want to stay in the game. I mean, all the top dogs of Berrystone are here for this one."

"Ooohhh~ It's gonna be a goooood one." Magni chuckled. Sounded like he's gritting his teeth at the same time.

Jeff couldn't see Magni's face. But Jeff could definitely feel the hatred and bloodlust from this angry fella.

"Oohhhmm... Are you ready now, humans?" The minotaur looked around. "How convenient..."

"If you were scattered around in this city, and you played hide and seek with me, that would give me a headache." The minotaur picked up its warhammer.

"Looks like I've got fewer trips to make."

"Bow before me! And I shall grant you stature just below me!"

A ray of light shot towards the towering minotaur.

Atlas hurled out his lance. "We humans shall never be slaves!"

Another faster ray of light followed.

With a casual wave, Lord Trample swatted Jeff's no-glow tier dagger into the air.

With his open hand, the minotaur caught Atlas' glint-tier lance.

Tightening his grasp, Atlas' lance snapped in half.

Atlas tightened his fists seeing this result.

The edge of Jeff's mouth twitched a little.

"Futile! Numbers mean nothing!"

"Well." Jeff shrugged. "I wouldn't say it's futile. If you know human games, you'd know there's chanting bars for casting spells. Yeah. I think we've caught your attention. And you are still looking at me. So."

Telepathy cupped his hands before his chest. That ruby-like gem on his necklace shot out an invisible ray. "Disturbance."

In an instance, that ray shot into the minotaur's head. Like turning off a switch, that minotaur lost focus in his eyes.

Looked like the minotaur didn't have that high of a psychic level.

"Misfortune." Oracle threw a burning talisman at the minotaur. That talisman inked onto its target like a tattoo.

"Weight. Disorientation. Drowsiness. Fatigue. Weakness. Draining willpower." One after another, that Oracle girl threw paper talismans at the towering monster.

At the same time, the ground under that minotaur blasted with a purple radiance. Thorny vines flooded out of the ground.

The moment these vines wrapped onto the minotaur's body, they bursted into flames. But more and more were just coming.

"This one is for my team! Haaarrggh!" Magni pulled back his bow. An arrow made of golden energy formed. Yet, even at SS-rank strength, this task looked like a struggle.

"You will PAY!" Atlas' lance bursted into a blinding light once more. Except this time, aiming at a still target, with nothing obstructing his sight, Atlas went for the head!

This time, that minotaur won't be able to grab his lance mid-air!

"Reap." Telepathy shot a needle made of condensed psychic energy at that monster.

Didn't matter how strong that monster was, or what mana grade that monster had, if it's psychic level was not at SSS-rank, it's going down with this one.

Oracle threw out a larger paper talisman. That paper quickly burnt up. Its flames converged into a flaming sword.

The ground under that minotaur softened up. At the same time, the vines pulled down at that monster.

"Enough!" A swinging warhammer met all of those attacks.

Btttooomm...

A blast of fiery explosion sent out a blast wave!

In an instance, every SS-rank here got knocked up into the air.

Like being hit by a truck, everyone here crashed into the sand or river water.

That minotaur was standing in a sea of flames now. The sand around it. The water near the shore. Everything was set aflame.

"Enough mortals! Don't you see! I've become a demi-god!" That minotaur pounded its chest.

"I wanted to take you in as my servants." The minotaur's rumbling voice raised in volume.

Looking around with a raging gaze, this minotaur stomped the ground. "Ohhmm..."

"OHHHMMM..."

"OHM!" The minotaur puffed out of its nose.

Something seemed to have snapped in his mind.

"You bring mist mist mist animals to MEEE. MEEE let you live! Live life!"

"Yet! You humans just won't STOP! STOP!" The minotaur roared.

"You imbeciles! Why can't you see?! Think humans! Think! You never had a chance!"

"Enough... I've had enough. Prepare... to die." The minotaur readied its warhammer.

"Yep." Jeff stood up. Sand slipped off of him. "You are right."

Looking at that minotaur with sleepy eyes, Jeff took a step forward. "That's enough."

"No... Uggh... Jeff." Atlas spat out some blood.

"We must fight on!" Atlas gritted his teeth and struggled to get up as well.

The minotaur locked its gaze at Atlas.

Stepping forward, Jeff hurled air at the giant minotaur.

"Oohhmmm...?" Sensing this, the minotaur turned to Jeff. Seeing Jeff's 'attack', the minotaur widely smiled. Not in humour though. But in cold kill-intent.

"Still putting up a fight... even after losing clarity in thought."

"I'll start with you. " The minotaur tried to lift up his warhammer, but couldn't.

A dense grey mist was obstructing its vision now.

Looking down, there was a watermelon-sized hole in its chest now. Originating from that hole, black stripes started to crawl out on its body.

Anti-healing effect activated...

Corrupting curse effect activated...

Yep. Jeff still had one last dagger in his arsenal. That glow-tier dagger Jeff got from Liam.

[Night's Edge]: Gradually enters a camouflaged state when being charged. Remains invisible in flight.

After being hit, the target won't feel anything. No pain. No numbness. No fatigue. As a result, the target usually receives a clueless death.

Silent and deadly. A perfect weapon for assassins.

After a lengthy battle, and some time for regeneration, Jeff had about 40% of his mana left.

In this situation, it's all or nothing.

Jeff went all-in, and put almost everything he had left into this dagger.

Yet, even after absorbing all that high-quality mana, this dagger barely vibrated in response. This weapon still had more potential.

The drawbacks:

At least SS-rank mana was needed to fire it. S-ranks could make it go invisible. In the hands of anyone below S-rank, this was just a sharp and sturdy dagger.